Coronavirus lockdowns around the world are making the Earth move less, scientists have discovered.

Since people in many countries were barred from leaving their homes and factories and traffic ground to a halt, seismic noise – the hum of vibrations in the planet’s crust – has dropped.

The researchers told The Independent the change will not only make it easier to detect earthquake signals, but also provide humanity with a lesson for the environment.

The vibrations from factories, cars, trains, buses and people going about their daily lives produce background noise that makes Earth’s crust move. This is picked up by the thousands of detectors worldwide that measure seismic waves.

Thomas Lecocq, a seismologist at the Royal Observatory in Belgium, discovered that ambient seismic noise has fallen by between 30 and 50 per cent in Brussels since the middle of last month, around the time the country closed schools and businesses.